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T O P I C R E V I E W

onesmallstep

I saw this photo showing Stafford, Young and Cernan, the Apollo 2 backup crew, wearing Block 2 Pressure Garment Assemblies (colored blue, without the external white thermal layer) participating in a fit and function test with a command module at North American Aviation (NAA) in Downey.

The date was Jan. 26, 1967, and of course the tragic fire on Pad 34 was just the next day. My question is: given the suits worn by the Apollo 1 crew, are the spacesuits shown in the photo (especially the helmets) the models scheduled to be used after Apollo 1, and is that crew's suits unique to that mission?

DG27

The decision to use A1C suits (derived from the Gemini suit design) for the Block I spacecraft was due to continuing issues with the shoulder width of the Apollo suits. Despite efforts to get everything to fit, the suits were still too wide for the Block I spacecraft. (The photo shows how the arms of the adjacent suits overlapped one another when A6L suits were used in the Block I spacecraft).

Thus a decision was made to defer use of the A6L Apollo suits to the Block II spacecraft and use the A1C suits in the Block 1 spacecraft for Earth orbital missions. Thus it is my understanding that all missions utilizing the Block I spacecraft would use the Gemini derived A1C suits beginning with the Apollo 1 mission.

The photo does show the configuration of the suit (blue without the TMG) that would have continued to be used for lunar missions had the tragic Apollo 1 fire not occurred. The TMG for lunar EVA would have been donned prior to exiting the LEM (see related TMG topic here).

Obviousman

I'm guessing they are A5L suits.

Kocmoc

Those are ILC suits, not David Clark suits. Look closely at the logo on the right hand of the left seat. The gloves on the center seat are clearly ILC Apollo gloves. Lacking the TMG cover on the gloves makes them likely A5-L gloves.

And the bubble helmet is the Air-Lock helmet, not the modified G$-C helmet from the A1-Cs.